Tag Archives: Islamic State

As much as it must be annoying for decent Muslims to be constantly asked to denounce ISIS, I don’t think that is the question we should be asking. Muslims shouldn’t be patronised with a ‘pat on the head’ for saying how awful a murdering, raping death cult is. That’s an incredibly low bar to clear for anyone, and my expectations of Muslims aren’t so poor as to be impressed by it. ‘Moderation’ is not what we need either. We need progressive Muslims. Those that understand that secularism is vital and that a theocracy or caliphate is not a good idea under any circumstances. And by ‘we’ I mean Muslims and non-Muslims.

I know next to nothing about Sulaiman Daud except that he says he is a Muslim and has now set the gold standard with his below Facebook post in response to the recent Paris attacks:

I want to thank well-meaning non-Muslims who, in the wake of these attacks, have emphasised that they have been carried out by a small, twisted minority. A terrorist’s goal is to sow hatred and discord, and by not giving in, you are defeating their plans.

But I want to say that as a Muslim, I wish that we weren’t so quick to emphasise that this has nothing to do with us. While I personally have never killed anyone and none of my friends and family have ever resorted to violence, radicalism has everything to do with Islam. And the failure to address that out of a well-intentioned commitment to tolerance is making the problem worse.

ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and it is an Islamic problem. Let me say it again to be perfectly clear. ISIS is a Muslim organisation, and they are a cancer at the heart of Islam. And the problem will not go away until Muslims confront that.

ISIS attackers scream ‘Allah hu’akbar’ during their attacks.ISIS recruits cite Qur’anic verses as justification for the rape and enslavement of women.ISIS soldiers kill archaeologists, gay men and women, and people who refuse to convert to Islam because they are blasphemers.

There are no Christians in ISIS. There are no Buddhists, Jews, Pagans, Taoists, Houngans, Catholics, Wiccans, Hindus or even Scientologists in ISIS. ISIS is a Muslim organisation and they kill in the name of Islam.

So don’t say that ISIS aren’t ‘true Muslims’ or that they are ‘not really Muslims’. Like any large organisation, ISIS exists in a spectrum. You have the aimless, restless teenager who never amounted to anything in his life and traveled to Syria because he can’t find a job and doesn’t know if the Qur’an is to be read from left to right or right to left. But you also have pious professionals, businessmen, and academics who read their Qur’an cover to cover, pray every day, were seduced into radicalism, and truly believe that the Islamic State’s goal of conquest is a noble one. The so-called ‘Caliph’ Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has a doctorate in Islamic studies.

So if you feel that Muslims are being oppressed or killed in Muslim countries, I expect you to also be just as outraged by ISIS. Because they have killed more Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan than the entire US army. They have done more damage to the name and reputation of Islam than any Western nation. ISIS is Islam’s biggest enemy, not the US, not Israel or France or Germany or the Russians.

We have to own the problem. We have to admit that this is a religious problem, and we need to renew our commitment to a secular country which treats all religions equally. I have believed in the importance of secularism all my life, and with every day that passes that belief grows stronger. Religion is no way to govern a nation. Not any religion, and not any nation.

ISIS is not America’s problem, nor the British, nor the French. ISIS is not Syria or Iraq’s problem. ISIS is a problem for Muslims. And if you can’t admit that, you’re not really a good Muslim either.

Voices like Sulaiman’s are the ones we should be amplifying above all the easy spiel about how this has ‘nothing to do with Islam’. Given Sulaiman’s lucid and thoughtful response currently has over 34,000 ‘shares’ on Facebook, I’m encouraged at the thought that many feel the same too.

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

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I’m very pleased to have Emily Dyer (@ErDyer1) on the podcast this week to coincide with International Women’s Day. Emily is a Research Fellow for The Henry Jackson Society and specialises in Women’s rights and Islamism. She recently wrote a report on the problem of Honour Killing in the UK. Some of you may have seen her owning it on the BBC’s Big Questions recently too. We discuss ISIS, Islamism, Honour Killing, Apologism, ‘Jihadi Brides’ and rape victim blaming.